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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28467189">Seeing Colors</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katt_Alexx/pseuds/Katt_Alexx'>Katt_Alexx</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bisexual Ginny Weasley, Bisexual Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy &amp; Harry Potter Friendship, Draco Malfoy In Love, Draco Malfoy is Obsessed with Harry Potter, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Gay Draco Malfoy, Harry is an idiot, Hogwarts Eighth Year, Idiots in Love, Implied Sexual Content, Lesbian Pansy Parkinson, M/M, Oblivious Harry, Pansexual Blaise Zabini, Pansexual Luna Lovegood, Partners in Potions Class (Harry Potter), Potions Accident, Slow Burn, draco is obviously in love</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-04-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-11 00:41:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>18,123</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28467189</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katt_Alexx/pseuds/Katt_Alexx</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Harry ends up seeing colored hazes around everyone and a pounding headache after a potions accident (that wasn't so much an accident), he worries that the war and attacks on him will never end. </p><p>Draco and Harry have started a friendship in their eighth year after a long time of being at each other's throats, but things become strained as Harry worries about the effect of the potion and Draco seems to have found out who the culprit is. Draco struggles to balance his feelings towards Harry and his loyalty to those around him, and he finds himself having to make hard decisions when the two are pitted against each other.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Hannah Abbott/Neville Longbottom, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Luna Lovegood/Ginny Weasley, Seamus Finnigan/Dean Thomas, one-sided Pansy Parkinson/Hermione Granger</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>October 5, 1998</p><p>Harry woke up, head pounding, in the hospital wing with barely any memory of how he'd gotten there. He tried to sit up, but didn't make it up far before he was flopping back onto the bed with a groan, his head spinning.</p><p>"Oh thank goodness you're awake," Harry could see Madam Pomfrey bustling around him through the haze currently fogging his vision. "How are you feeling?"</p><p>"Alright," Harry croaked and Madam Pomfrey tutted before hurrying off to return with some kind of painkiller.</p><p>His head seemed to stop spinning after gulping down the disgusting liquid, but the haze remained, "What happened?"</p><p>"Well, there was-" Pomfrey began but was interrupted by a ragged looking Draco bursting through the doors.</p><p>"Oh thank god," Draco said, hurtling over to Harry's bed.</p><p>"Mr. Malfoy, visiting hours are over," Pomfrey tried to say but Draco ignored her.</p><p>"I was here earlier, but you weren't waking and Pomfrey forced me to go to class," Draco said all in a hurry and his words seemed to blur together a bit and it wasn't helping Harry's head that Draco seemed to be glowing red. "I was so worried."</p><p>"I'm alright," Harry said, reaching out and bruising his hand over Draco's where he'd placed it on the edge of his bed. Draco seemed to hyper-fixate on his hand then, allowing Pomfrey to finally be heard.</p><p>"Mr. Malfoy, visiting hours are over. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."</p><p>Her voice seemed to knock sense back into Draco as he snapped back to himself, "I'm not leaving and you can't make me," he said defiantly, moving to sit down in the chair next to Harry's bed.</p><p>Madam Pomfrey let out a long suffering sigh. There was no way to win with these two, ever since they'd become friends they were unable to be separated from each other. "Alright, if you stay out of my way you can stay," Pomfrey said, moving to grab a clipboard. "It seems like your potion exploded. Malfoy was lucky to have not been hit with it."</p><p>It slowly came back to him then.</p><p>---------------------------------------------</p><p>Sunday, September 6, 1998</p><p>"Turn to page 394," Snape said as class began, "Today we'll be brewing Veritaserum, which is an advanced potion, so we'll be brewing a less potent version of it. After the brewing process, you'll be drinking some of the potion to study how it affects you. Don't worry though, you'll be able to refuse telling the truth if you truly want to. This potion will merely show you how the potion pulls at you to tell the truth." Snape started writing down potion ingredients, then.</p><p>The potion itself took only a day to brew, and Harry was grateful his potion's partner was Malfoy. </p><p>The next 28 days they had to let the potion sit and mature and when October 5th rolled around, Harry was kind of interested to see how it turned out.</p><p>"Today we'll be trying the potion," Snape said as everyone fished their books out of their bags, "But first you'll need to add two more ingredients to dilute it, stirring for ten minutes clockwise before putting in the ingredients," Snape scribbled down the ingredients and directions onto the blackboard as he spoke.</p><p>"I'll go get the ingredients while you stir," Draco said as he moved away to find them in the store room.</p><p>Harry stared down at the potion that was slightly murky. It was clear when they'd left it to mature just 28 days ago, Harry thought, he figured it had to be fine though. After all, Draco had helped brew it, and him and Hermione were top of the class. With a shrug Harry dipped the stirring stick into the potion, spinning it clockwise. The stick was halfway around the cauldron when the potion bubbled up and promptly exploded in Harry's face, soaking their entire work-area with the potion. The last thing he remembered was seeing Draco's shocked face before he blacked out.</p><p>-----------------------------------------</p><p>Harry groaned as he realized his head probably hurt from hitting it on something on the way down.</p><p>"I had been in the potion's store room so I missed it all," Draco said, looking over at Harry, "what happened exactly?"</p><p>Harry could hear the worry in his voice and he couldn't help but think about how a year ago he would've been shocked to see Draco worried about him. "I'm not sure exactly, all I did was stir the potion," Harry said, "well, I suppose I didn't even get to do that. It exploded before I even managed to bring the stirring stick the whole way around. It was a murky color though, and last week it looked fine."</p><p>Draco didn't say anything but Harry could see him looking at him worriedly. "Well, there's always the possibility you two simply messed up the potion," Pomfrey looked over at where Malfoy was sitting, "though I know that you're pretty good with potions, so it would seem more likely that someone tampered with it."</p><p>They all seemed to go quiet for a moment, the information sinking in.</p><p>"Who would try to sabotage our potions assignment though?" Harry asked.</p><p>"Just because the war is over doesn't mean that there aren't people out there who don't still want revenge," Pomfrey said, "though I don't see who at Hogwarts would want to do so."</p><p>"But that doesn't make sense. Draco was working on it with me, whoever did it couldn't have known Draco wouldn't be next to me when it exploded. Someone getting revenge wouldn't attack him."</p><p>"They wouldn't care. I'm a traitor for being friends with you, even if the war is over. It wouldn't matter if I got hit with the potion to them," Draco said grimly. Harry watched the way his eyes seemed to get a bit clouded as he avoided Harry's eyes. Harry couldn't help notice the red haze that surrounded him though and wondered if the potion had gotten in his eyes or something.</p><p>"Well, we can't rule out that it was done on purpose, but keep in mind it could have also just been a mistake," Pomfrey said. Harry looked over at her then and realized that she was glowing too, a lot fainter than Draco, though, and not red. Instead she was glowing a light blue. "How are you feeling though?"</p><p>"Huh? What?" Harry snapped back to the conversation, his brain slowly processing the question, "Oh, yeah I'm alright. My head hurts and," he paused for a moment wondering if he should tell her about the glowing - after all, the potion could've just gotten in his eyes - but decided it couldn't hurt, "and you're both glowing."</p><p>Pomfrey stared at him a moment, looking slightly surprised. Okay, definitely not normal, Harry thought. "Glowing?"</p><p>"Yeah, you both kinda have a haze around you. You're light blue and Draco's red."</p><p>Pomfrey stared at him for a second, "What potion did you say you were brewing again?"</p><p>"Veratesirum," Harry replied.</p><p>"I can't think of anything that would cause people to look like they're glowing to you in veratesirum..." Pomfrey said, writing something down on her clipboard. "I'll have to talk to Professor Snape and see if he can find what was wrong with the potion. For now, is the headache bad?"</p><p>"Not really, just kinda a dull ache."</p><p>"Alright, I'll give you something for it and then you can go if you'd like. I'll have to discuss this with Professor Snape and Headmistress McGonagall and when I have more information I'll come find you, alright?"</p><p>"Yeah," Harry replied and Pomfrey went off to find something for his headache.</p><p>-------------------------------</p><p>"Who would try to ruin the potion?" Draco said as they made their way back to the dorms, "It just doesn't make any sense."</p><p>"Who knows," Harry mumbled, head pounding and still confused why Draco was glowing red. "I'm not terribly surprised though."</p><p>Draco looked over at him for a moment and he seemed to glow a bit brighter which just confused Harry even more. "It makes even less sense that the potion seems to have no effect besides your headache and the glowing."</p><p>"Maybe they weren't very smart," Harry said.</p><p>Draco gave him a funny look then as they made it around the corner to where the eighth-year dorms were.</p><p>When they made it into the room, Harry was immediately surrounded by glowing people and it seemed to just make his head hurt worse.</p><p>"Harry! Thank goodness you're okay," Hermione said, pulling him into a hug, giving Draco a slightly awkward glance. Her and Ron still were a bit wary around Draco and Harry couldn't really blame them, but they weren't downright refusing to accept that Harry and Draco were friends now, which Harry thought was good. "Were there any weird effects of the potion? What happened exactly?"</p><p>"Uh," Harry said, feeling slightly stupid but all the colors were hurting his brain and he felt very tired.</p><p>Hermione (bless her, Harry thought), seemed to notice he wasn't feeling great and managed to disperse everyone, leading him over to the couch by the fire where they were able to sit down.</p><p>"It didn't have any horrible effects, at least as far as I've seen," Harry said when they had sat down, "I have a pretty bad headache though, and everyone's glowing."</p><p>"Glowing?" Hermione stared at him shocked for a second.</p><p>"Like I look neon or something?" Ron asked and Harry turned to look at him, taking in the red haze around his friend.</p><p>"No, more like you have a haze around you."</p><p>Hermione stared at him a moment longer before saying, "so like we're all different colors or something?"</p><p>"No, well I'm not sure I suppose. I've only seen three colors, but I suppose there could be more..." Harry looked over at Draco who was seated next to him. "Draco's red, so are you two and Pomfrey is light blue. When I came into the common room I think I saw someone who was pink, but I don't really know who it was."</p><p>Hermione seemed to contemplate this for a second. "And you're sure you didn't mess up the potion at all?"</p><p>"Not as far as I know, and Draco is too good at potions to mess up either."</p><p>"And Pomfrey didn't have any ideas either?"</p><p>"No, she said she had to talk to Snape."</p><p>"Hmm..."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>October 6, 1998</p><p>The next day Harry woke up without a headache, but it quickly returned when he entered the great hall to see the mess of reds, pinks, blues, and greens.</p><p>He felt like he was going a little crazy.</p><p>He tried to keep his head down the entire way to his table, barely hearing Draco's "see you later," as he headed towards the Slytherin table.</p><p>He picked at his breakfast as he tried to list who had what colors in his head. Draco, Hermione, Ron, Seamus, and Dean were red. Ginny, Luna, Hannah Abbott, Pansy, and Neville were pink. Blaise, Susan Bones, and Madam Pomfrey were blue. And he could make out a couple greens in the sea of students, though he didn't know any by name. He briefly wondered what his color was.</p><p>"Hey did you take the potion Pomfrey gave you, today?" Hermione asked, watching as Harry poked at his food.</p><p>"Oh, no, I haven't yet," Harry said leaning over to rummage through his bag that was sitting on the floor at his feet. It was instant relief as he downed half of it like he'd been told.</p><p>"Better?" Hermione asked, watching as his eyes seemed to clear.</p><p>"Much."</p><p>"I'm just surprised you didn't think to take the potion yourself," Hermione shook her head.</p><p>Harry felt his appetite return as he looked around the room taking in all the colors. It still hurt his head a bit, but it was definitely bearable now. Up at the front McGonagall glowed blue and he wished he knew what it all meant.</p><p>-----------------------------------</p><p>The day got wilder as it went on. It seemed like the more colors he saw the more it didn't seem real. Everyone seemed to be surrounded by a color and he had yet to see anyone without a color. He supposed everyone had a color.</p><p>He had made one observation though: sometimes people glowed brighter. He'd noticed three people who glowed more than others in specific, though: Hermione, Ron and Draco. Granted, those were who he'd been around the most, and he'd also been studying them for most the day as well. The thing that puzzled him the most though was that while Hermione and Ron seemed to have a pattern of when they glowed brighter (when they were around each other), Draco didn't seem to have a pattern at all. Instead he always seemed to be glowing brighter than everyone else in the room.</p><p>Harry stared across the room, now. Watching as Draco's head bobbed as he laughed quietly at something Pansy said.</p><p>He usually sat with Draco for this class - ancient runes - but they were supposed to be working in groups of three today so they'd separated to work with their own friend groups. Harry wasn't really working today though, but Hermione didn't seem to mind. She probably thought he had a headache again, Harry figured. She wouldn't be far off, though, his head was starting to ache again. He figured it was because he wasn't used to seeing so many colors.</p><p>Instead of working, he opted to watch Draco. His hair had grown out slightly over the summer and hung loosely around his head. At the beginning of the year Draco had come to school with it slicked back as usual until Harry made an off-hand comment that he should try to wear it loose. Draco hadn't slicked it back since and Harry felt kinda bad. It did look better though. Quite a lot.</p><p>His hair caught the light and seemed to glow in the sun, though it could also be due to the fact that he actually was glowing.</p><p>He was pretty good looking for a guy Harry supposed.</p><p>He knew he was zoning out, but he was quickly jolted out of his thoughts as Draco turned and Harry quickly avoided his eyes. It was weird to stare.</p><p>When he took his chances of turning back, Draco seemed to be glowing brighter, if that was even possible and it honestly hurt his eyes a bit. He decided he should probably try and focus back on his school work for the sake of both his grades and sanity.</p><p>--------------------------</p><p>They'd started hanging out in the evenings. Harry and Draco.</p><p>They'd go somewhere and study, or sit at the top of the astronomy tower and look out over the grounds, way past curfew. It was nice, better than nice. It was one of the only times Harry felt like he could relax and let himself go.</p><p>Harry would find himself leaning into Draco's shoulder as they sat at the top of the tower. Or he'd find himself scooting closer to Draco as they worked on homework. Even when studying, it never really seemed boring anymore.</p><p>Harry wished he would've made friends with Draco sooner. He really was one of the best he'd ever had and he felt like Draco understood him better than Ron and Hermione sometimes.</p><p>Tonight they were going out to the lake to work on homework. Hermione eyed him as he made his way towards the door with Draco.</p><p>"Are you feeling any better?" Draco asked, their shoulders bumping as they walked down the hallway.</p><p>"Yeah, my head still kind of hurts, but that potion Pomfrey gave me has helped a lot."</p><p>"That's good, I was worried when you collapsed," Draco said. Harry looked over at him; his head was down and he had a look in his eyes Harry couldn't quite place. The look made him feel oddly bad and he reached his hand out, fingers grazing Draco's before grabbing his hand and giving a gentle squeeze.</p><p>Draco glowed brighter than usual, but squeezed Harry's hand back. "I'm okay, don't worry. Though, the colors are a bit crazy," Harry chucked a bit, not letting Draco's hand go. Draco didn't make any move to drop his either.</p><p>"Any developments with that?"</p><p>"Not really," Harry sighed, readjusting his book-bag on his shoulder. He would switch shoulders, but he didn't want to jam the bag between the two of them. "I've seen a couple more colors: pink and green. I think there are only four colors total, or I haven't seen any others at least. Everyone has a color too," Harry said, trailing off and looking out towards where they usually sat by the lake. There weren't many people out there as it was October and getting cold. "Oh, and sometimes people will glow brighter than usual."</p><p>"Really?" Draco turned to look at him.</p><p>"Yeah, like Ron and Hermione glow brighter a lot. I haven't really watched many people though," Harry looked over at Draco, taking him in, "You're always glowing pretty bright though."</p><p>Draco's ears burned, he had no idea what any of the glowing meant, but the fact that he was glowing the most was embarrassing enough. "Do you have any idea what's causing it yet?"</p><p>"No idea, For a moment I thought I had an idea, but it didn't really fit."</p><p>Draco watched him curiously and was about to ask what his idea was when he realized that they'd made it to their usual spot and Harry was dropping his hand to set his stuff down.</p><p>He couldn't help feel cold without Harry's hand in his.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>October 9, 1998</p><p>It was finally Friday and it didn't seem like there was any new news until he got called out of his last class: Divination.</p><p>He definitely didn't mind. Divination was the worst class in his opinion, but he did feel slightly bad as he left Draco sitting at their shared table.</p><p>"You figured something out didn't you," Harry said as him and Pomfrey made it to the infirmary to find Snape and McGonagall already there.</p><p>"Professor Snape just finished analyzing the potion and it seems it wasn't just an accident," Pomfrey said in that matter-of-fact way nurses seemed to be able to do, even when giving bad news.</p><p>Snape cut in then, "It seems someone has slipped amortentia into your potion; that, or you happened to accidently put all of the ingredients into your potion," Snape drawled, obviously angry about the inconvenience, "Though I highly doubt even you'd manage that."</p><p>"It appears someone tampered with the potion after all," Pomfrey said, "Though we have no idea who, why, or what the effects are except the colors..." She trailed off, letting Harry process the information before starting again, "Do you have any idea who might have done it, or any ideas about the potion's effects?"</p><p>Harry paused for a second, then, "I have no idea who might have done it, and no idea what the effects are. I have noticed people glowing different colors though, and sometimes people glow brighter than others."</p><p>The three adults seemed to take a moment to let the information sink in, until Pomfrey finally spoke up, "Since we're still not sure what the potion will do, I think it's best to just monitor you for a while until we know more."</p><p>Harry was suddenly worried "monitoring" him meant keeping him in the hospital wing, "You don't mean I have to stay here, right?"</p><p>"No, of course not," Pomfrey said and Harry felt better. He hated the hospital wing, he's stayed more than his fair share of time in the hospital wing, and didn't plan to spend more this year too. "I just mean that I want you to let me know if you notice any changes and Snape and I will look into the effects of the potion combination in the meantime."</p><p>-------------------------------</p><p>"There you are!" Hermione said, standing up from her seat at the table in the great hall, 'I was worried when Madam Pomfrey came and took you out in the middle of class."</p><p>"I'm fine, don't worry. Professor Snape apparently finished analyzing the potion is all," Harry went to sit down when he finally realized Draco was sitting at the Gryffindor table today. A smile spread across Harry's face as he completely forgot he was talking to Hermione and moved to sit down next to Draco, "Hey, it's been a bit since you sat here."</p><p>"Yeah, sorry about that," Draco smiled back, one of his soft smiles that seemed to be reserved for just Harry.</p><p>Hermione eyed them before realizing he was never going to continue what he was saying without prompting, "What did they find out, Harry," Hermione said, finally gaining Harry's attention back.</p><p>"Oh," Harry said, remembering that Hermione was talking to him, "They said that our potion had been mixed with amortentia."</p><p>Hermione gave him a puzzled look, "Why amortentia?"</p><p>"No idea," Harry responded, finally digging into his food. He could feel Draco's gaze on him.</p><p>"That's just an odd mix," Hermione said, almost like she was talking to herself, "I don't imagine it would kill you, especially as none of the ingredients react badly towards each other... I imagine it was someone who wanted a specific effect or they didn't know what they were doing. It just seems odd."</p><p>"The people my father worked for are dumb, but not that dumb," Draco murmured, he had turned back to his food and was staring absently down at his soup.</p><p>"I have to agree with Malfoy," Hermione said, "It just doesn't seem like something Voldemort's followers would do. Something isn't right."</p><p>"Of course it wouldn't be something easy," Harry groaned, slumping down on the bench, "can't I just have a normal year."</p><p>"Not at Hogwarts," Ron grumbled.</p><p>Draco reached his hand out to brush his fingers over Harry's comfortingly, "I'm sure it'll work out."</p><p>"Yeah, I'm sure it will, but it's a pain in the meantime," Harry said and Ron and Hermione laughed a bit.</p><p>At the beginning of the school year when Draco had come to apologize to Harry and they became friends, it had been beyond awkward between Harry and his friends when he'd hang out with Draco. Draco had apologized to Ron and Hermione of course, and while they'd accepted his apology (though that took a while), they hadn't really gotten used to him being around Harry.</p><p>It had gotten better as some time passed, of course, and now it was only slightly awkward at times when they were all together.</p><p>Draco kept coming to sit at Harry's table though, even if it was at times a bit weird, because it was worth it if he got to be with Harry.</p><p>Harry continued to eat his dinner as Hermione and Ron dived into a conversation about classes and how Ron hadn't done his homework.</p><p>"Tomorrow is the first Hogsmeade trip," Draco started, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt, "and I was wondering if you'd like to go with me."</p><p>"Of course!" Harry said smiling, "I was actually going to ask you if you wanted to go."</p><p>"Really?" Draco asked, heart feeling like it was about to beat out of his chest.</p><p>"Yeah, of course! I was going to invite you to go with Ron, Hermione, and I but they're going on a date," Harry laughed a bit, "so I was thinking I could go with just you so they could have some space."</p><p>"Oh," Draco visibly deflated, but Harry had turned back to his food to take another bite and didn't seem to notice.</p><p>"Do you have any stores you want to go to in specific? I mostly just want to go to honeydukes and also see if I can find someone with a different color haze."</p><p>"Not really," Draco said, trying to put some excitement back in his voice, he felt disappointed that Harry had only been meaning to go with him alone because Hermione and Ron were busy.</p><p>"Well, we could sleep in for a bit and then eat lunch there at the three broomsticks, and after that we could go to honeydukes and wherever else looks interesting. We can leave at 11."</p><p>Draco could help blushing a bit at how much it sounded like a date, "Alright."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>October 10, 1998</p><p>Draco woke up at nine on Saturday, two hours before he was supposed to meet up with Harry.</p><p>"You look nice," Blaise said with a smirk as Draco emerged from their shared bathroom, "did you finally land a date?"</p><p>"No," Draco grumbled, pulling at the hem of his shirt in nervousness, 'We're just going to hogsmeade."</p><p>"You look nice for just a guys trip to hogsmeade," Blaise laughed and Draco glared.</p><p>"Just because it's not a date doesn't mean I can't look nice."</p><p>"Fair-" Blaise started but was interrupted by the door slamming open, displaying Pansy in the doorway, dressed in a solid black dress that bunched around her knees.</p><p>"I heard something about a date and came as soon as I heard," Pansy declared, closing the door and making her way to Draco's bed. Promptly making herself at home.</p><p>"I don't have a date," Draco said, "And how did you even hear about it. Blaise only just found out."</p><p>"I just had a feeling that something was happening and had to be here for it," Pansy said, appraising Draco, "and it seems I was right. You're wearing those black muggle pants. You'd only wear those for Potter and we both know it."</p><p>Draco felt his face get hot, "Well it's not a date," he grumbled.</p><p>"Potter only invited him to hangout," Blaise informed.</p><p>"His friends are going on a date and he didn't want to bother them," Draco said, running his hands through his hair.</p><p>"Wow, you're really bad at being clear you invited him as a date huh?" Pansy said.</p><p>"It's not my fault!" Draco said, throwing his hands up and flopping down on his bed next to Pansy.</p><p>"If I were to ask someone out, I'd make it clear I meant a date," Pansy drawled, "so it is kind of your fault." Blaise snickered.</p><p>"Yeah, but you won't ask your crush out. At least I tried."</p><p>"Yeah but she's in a happy relationship. I know I have no chance, you, on the other hand do."</p><p>"You don't necessarily know if Hermione is straight," Blaise pointed out.</p><p>"Yeah she could like anyone she can fuck, like Blaise here," Draco smirked.</p><p>Blaise glared at him, "Being pan doesn't mean I don't have standards."</p><p>"Yeah being pan doesn't mean you don't have standards, but you don't," Pansy said.</p><p>"Oh har har."</p><p>"As much as I love this conversation," Draco said, checking the time, "I have somewhere to be."</p><p>"Yeah, don't be late for your date," Pansy said.</p><p>"It's not a date," Draco muttered already headed for the door.</p><p>"Make it one!" he heard Blaise shout behind him as he closed the door.</p><p>Draco found Harry already waiting for him by the entrance to the common room as he made it down stairs, "Hey."</p><p>"Hey," Harry replied, taking in Draco's appearance, "You look nice."</p><p>"Thanks, you do too," Draco said, avoiding Harry's eyes, opting to focus on his shoes.</p><p>Harry let out a small laugh, "Ready to go then?"</p><p>The walk to Hogsmeade was cold and they were both shivering even with heating charms when they made it to the three broomsticks.</p><p>"It's too cold for it only being October," Draco grumbled, taking off his cloak, setting it down on the seat next to himself. They'd selected a booth at the back in a semi-private area. It suited them both as neither of them liked the attention being in public brought.</p><p>"I agree," Harry said, just as a waiter came over to take their order.</p><p>"See anyone with a different haze?" Draco said, watching as Harry gazed around the room.</p><p>"No, not at all. Those two at that table over there are glowing a pretty bright red though," Harry said, pointing to what seemed to be a young couple. From the looks of it they seemed to be Hogwarts students.</p><p>"How about everyone else?" Draco said, "Maybe we can try to figure out a pattern."</p><p>"Well," Harry looked for someone to point out, "That waiter over there behind the bar area is green, and the two women in the corner over there are pink." Draco gazed at the people Harry pointed out. Trying to figure out if there was a pattern in the people who glowed the most versus those who didn't.</p><p>"Woah," Harry said, surprised. He pointed at a guy and girl kissing at a booth in the corner across the room, "They both started glowing really brightly."</p><p>Draco looked to where the two were furiously kissing and his eyes widened as he started to realize what might be happening with the potion. He prayed he was wrong.</p><p>Their food and butterbeers came eventually after a bit of Harry pointing out different people and commenting on the colors. No one had a new color though.</p><p>"I can't believe the first quidditch match is less than a month away," Harry said, halfway through his lunch.</p><p>"Me neither," Draco said, "it's weird not playing this year."</p><p>"I agree," Harry said, almost wistfully, "The war really made us all miss out on a lot, huh?"</p><p>"Yeah, it seems like it still follows us around though, huh?" Draco looked up and met Harry's eyes and Harry watched him glow just a tad bit brighter.</p><p>--------------------------------------</p><p>The next place they found themselves was honey dukes and Harry had a bag full of candy and Draco was following behind laughing.</p><p>"You're going to give yourself a heart attack with all that sugar," Draco mused, following behind Harry towards the register as he picked up a couple things for himself.</p><p>"I don't eat it all in one sitting," Harry said, bumping his shoulder against Draco's playfully. "I like to have candy on hand at all times."</p><p>"Just sounds like an excuse to me," Draco said as Harry paid for his candy, Draco following his lead.</p><p>"You'll just have to take my word for it," Harry said as they stepped out into the cold outside air. "Do you have any shops you wanted to go to?"</p><p>"Nah, I don't need anything in particular."</p><p>"If we head back now, then we would have time to head up to the astronomy tower for a bit," Harry said, walking close enough to Draco that their shoulders brushed together, "We could eat some of this candy too."</p><p>Draco gave him a warm smile, "Sounds like a good idea to me. It won't be very fun walking back in this weather though," he said jokingly.</p><p>Harry took in Draco's thin frame, shivering slightly from the cold, nose red. He jammed his bag of candy into his coat pocket, stopping Draco in his tracks to pull off his scarf and wrap it snugly around Draco's neck. Harry decided he looked kind of cute all wrapped up in both scarfs.</p><p>"Won't you be cold?" Draco asked, already feeling warmer with the extra layer.</p><p>"I'll be alright," Harry said, turning to continue walking. Draco watched him walk for a moment before hurrying to catch up.</p><p>They walked in a comfortable silence for a bit before Draco decided to risk grabbing Harry's hand. They'd held hands, sure, but usually only when comforting one another.</p><p>Draco held his breath as he reached for Harry's hand, waiting for his reaction. Harry simply smiled at him though, grabbing Draco's hand back and not letting go until they got back to the castle and Harry let go to open the door for Draco.</p>
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<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>October 10, 1998</p><p>Harry and Draco had made their way up the winding staircase to the top of the astronomy tower when it was still bright out. It was dark now though, and they hadn't even made a move to leave. Draco was leaning into Harry's shoulder, laughing at something Harry couldn't remember saying. It was long past curfew and they were both loopy with exhaustion.</p><p>Harry reached up a hand to run his fingers through Draco's hair, he let out a contented sigh, leaning into the touch. It was nice to relax like this.</p><p>Harry absentmindedly kept his fingers threading through Draco's hair as he looked out over the grounds. Draco was glowing brightly beside him and it was kind of beautiful. Harry could see the red out of the corner of his eye and he closed his eyes letting himself savor the moment.</p><p>He felt more comfortable with Draco than he did anyone else, and he felt himself sigh in contentment, leaning his head down on top of Draco's. He could hear the wind whistling through the trees of the forbidden forest and felt the cool breeze on his face. It was the most relaxed Harry had been in a while. He was almost asleep when Draco moved off of where he was leaning against Harry to sit up.</p><p>Harry opened his eyes to see Draco sitting half in front of himself. "You alright?" Harry asked, wondering why he suddenly moved.</p><p>Draco simply stared at him a moment longer before he was leaning in and Harry's brain shut down.</p><p>Draco's kissing me.</p><p>My friend is kissing me.</p><p>Draco's kissing me.</p><p>His brain was spinning a mile a minute but he was able to pull two coherent thoughts together long enough to push Draco off himself.</p><p>"What-" Harry started, shock lacing his features, "What was that?!"</p><p>Draco wasn't able to say anything, his throat felt tight. His world was crumbling around him. I screwed up, was the only thought running through his head. Running on repeat.</p><p>Harry didn't seem to be planning on waiting for an answer though, and was standing up and hurrying out of the room as fast as possible.</p><p>Draco watched him go, his brain trying to process what just happened and finally slowing down.</p><p>That's when he realized just how bad he messed up and his eyes prickled. He tried to hold it back, it's my own fault, he told himself.</p><p>He couldn't stop it though and he felt the hot tears make their way down his cheeks. He'd finally been able to befriend Harry, the thing he'd wanted since he first laid his eyes on this boy, and now he'd messed it all up. Why'd he have to be so stupid?</p><p>---------------------------------</p><p>He made it back to his dorm an hour later, eyes puffy and swollen, but finally feeling composed enough to make his way back to his room. He was hoping Blaise would be asleep when he arrived, but as he opened the door and Blaise's voice rang out through the dark, he realized he wasn't going to be so lucky.</p><p>"How was the date?" Blaise asked, voice way too chipper for it being two in the morning. "It must have gone well, with how late it is" Blaise said and Draco didn't have to be able to see him to know he was smirking.</p><p>"It was fine," Draco tried to say without giving away what'd he just spent the last hour doing, but failed miserably and what came out was more of a choked sob.</p><p>"What happened?" Blaise suddenly sounded worried and Draco could hear him getting up from his bed.</p><p>"Nothing happened," Draco said, making his way towards his bed, "I'm fine."</p><p>"No, you're not fine," Blaise said and Draco felt the bed next to him sink as Blaise sat down next to him in the dark. "Tell me what happened."</p><p>Draco lost it then, the tears coming back as he slumped forward into Blaise's chest. Draco wasn't one to initiate physical contact with anyone and Blaise was caught off guard for a moment before wrapping his arms around Draco's shaking shoulders.</p><p>"I was an idiot," Draco mumbled into Blaise's chest, "I kissed him and he ran away." Draco choked back a sob. "I was stupid and ruined everything."</p><p>Blaise stared down at him, momentarily shocked that he even worked up the courage to kiss him. "I'm sure you didn't ruin everything," Blaise said, "It's Potter, he'd forgive the Dark Lord if he apologized nicely enough." Draco laughed a bit, a choking sort of laugh, like he couldn't quite get enough air. "And you're not an idiot for showing him how you feel."</p><p>"I'm an idiot for showing him like that though."</p><p>"Nah, I don't think so," Blaise said, "In my opinion it was perfectly justified. You two are practically hanging off each other, you might as well have already been dating."</p><p>"He just thinks we're friends."</p><p>"Well he wouldn't be completely wrong," Blaise said and Draco glared at him.</p><p>"Not helping."</p><p>"Sorry, sorry. Want me to get Pansy? I'm sure she'll bring some alcohol. The best remedy for a broken heart."</p><p>Ten minutes later, the three of them were seated on Draco's bed tipsy and on their way to drunk.</p><p>"I'm just so stupid," Draco said, his words slurring as he took another gulp of firewhisky, "I should'ta said anythin'."</p><p>"Nah, I think it's good you finally got the guts to do something," Pansy giggled, she was already pretty much drunk. She swore up and down that she was a heavy weight but was always the first one drunk when they drank together.</p><p>"You just gotta give it more time. There's no way he doesn't like you," Blaise said.</p><p>"Yeah, it's obvious how much he cares for you," Pansy said.</p><p>"He's probably just a closet case," Blaise said and Pansy burst out laughing like it was the funniest thing ever.</p><p>"Oh he's definitely a closet case," she giggled, "And dense too."</p><p>"Denser than stone!" Blaise cried.</p><p>"Precisely! That's the whole reason why I messed with that potion!" Pansy tilted her bottle towards Draco, the liquid sloshing dangerously close to the edge of the bottle, "Knew neither of you'd be able to say anything to each other without some kind of aid. Though, you managed to kiss him!" Blaise snickered as Pansy gulped down more of the contents of the bottle. "I'm just bummed it didn't work right. I did research and everything," Pansy complained.</p><p>"What was it supposed to do?" Draco asked, head spinning slightly from the alcohol.</p><p>"Veritaserum and amortentia were supposed to cause you two to confess your feelings towards each other when you drank it, but instead it blew up!"</p><p>Somewhere in the back of his mind told him this was important, that something wasn't right with this information. His head was spinning though and he felt sluggish and tired.</p><p>He was too far gone to care about it though.</p>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>October 11, 1998</p><p>Draco woke up the next day by the sun glaring through the window. His head was pounding and he was immensely thankful that it was Sunday and not a school day.</p><p>He slowly sat up, surveying the room. The window was open, they must've opened it the night before. His sheets were tossed off the bed along with most of his pillows and Pansy seemed to be using it all as a makeshift bed on the floor.</p><p>Pansy.</p><p>And then it all came flooding back to him. Pansy was the one who had messed with the potion, but she'd also only done it because she thought it would make them admit their feelings to each other. His head was hurting too bad to think about this too deeply and he flopped back onto his bed.</p><p>He remembered his stash of hangover potion in his bedside table and sat up to get it out. By the time he had downed a bottle, he could hear Pansy groaning as she woke up. Draco passed down a bottle of the potion to her wordlessly.</p><p>She gratefully took it, downing it in one gulp.</p><p>"Ugh what happened," she groaned, taking in the messy room.</p><p>Draco surveyed her for a moment, then, "So you're the one who messed with our potion."</p><p>He watched as her eyes grew wider as she no doubt remembered what she had admitted to the night before, "Draco I didn't think-"</p><p>"That's just the thing!" Draco cut her off, "You didn't think. You're not a master at potions, you had no way to know for sure how the potion would affect us, and you were willing to let us drink it!" Pansy's eyes grew a bit teary as Draco fumed at her, "You never think about these things. You just rush blindly in! Forget the fact that it didn't work like you expected for a moment, what was your plan if McGonagall found out. We're all on a very tight leash here after our involvement in the war and you were ready to throw everything away for what?! For him to confess feelings for me that are more than likely aren't even there?!"</p><p>"I thought it would work, Draco! And you all were taking veritaserum anyway, if you had admitted your feelings everyone would have just thought it was the potion!"</p><p>"Well it didn't work Pansy! So what now!?" Draco practically yelled and watched as Pansy shrunk back in the way she did when she knew she was in the wrong. "I need some fresh air," Draco seethed, throwing on his shoes and leaving the room.</p><p>"What was that about?" Blaise said from his bed, having had woken up when Draco started screaming.</p><p>"The potion."</p><p>"Oh. Oh," Blaise turned wide, worried eyes onto Pansy as he remembered the drunken admission of the night before. "What are you going to do now? If you get caught-"</p><p>"Save it, I already got a lecture from Draco. I know," Pansy said, deflated. She got up then to grab a hangover potion for Blaise.</p><p>-----------------------------</p><p>"Are you okay?" Hermione asked. They had been sitting in the dining hall for the last ten minutes and Harry hadn't said a word, just mindlessly stared down at his plate.</p><p>"I'm fine," Harry muttered.</p><p>"Is this about Draco?" Hermione asked and Harry's eyes widened slightly.</p><p>Before he could respond though Ron butted in, "If he did anything to you, I swear-"</p><p>"Ron, let him talk.'</p><p>"He-" Harry paused wondering if he should even tell them. The idea of telling them Draco kissed him embarrassed him enough and he didn't want to share that embarrassment with someone else. "He didn't do anything. I'm fine, just tired."</p><p>It was hardly convincing, but Hermione dropped the topic.</p><p>Her suspicions were confirmed anyway when Draco came into the dining hall twenty minutes later, meeting eyes with Harry and then dropping them to hurry over to the Slytherin table.</p><p>--------------------------------</p><p>Draco's mind was spinning, on one hand, he knew Harry along with everyone else was worried someone had infiltrated Hogwarts again and he really should let them know that it wasn't a death eater. On the other hand, though, Pansy was his best friend (even if he was furious at her at the moment) and he had no idea what would happen to her if anyone found out. He couldn't tell anyone if he wanted to protect her too.</p><p>He couldn't just turn her in. What kind of friend would he be?</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>A/N: Trigger warning, homophobic language is referenced, though it is not directed at anyone in specific.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>October 24, 1998</p><p>Draco sat at a table in the corner of the common room on a Saturday, watching as people left to go to Hogsmeade. Almost two weeks had passed and Harry still hadn't talked to him. I really fucked up, Draco thought to himself as he slumped down on his textbook.</p><p>He really missed their hang-outs and their study sessions (which usually ended up being them sitting talking to each other with their homework out). Draco was lonely if he was being honest. He had made up with Pansy and decided to not rat her out, even if she totally deserved it. Even though he had Blaise and Pansy, he still felt unbelievably lonely and wondered how he ever dealt with not being Harry's friend before.</p><p>His eyes wandered over to where he saw Hermione and Ron walking down the stairs together, Hermione laughing at something Ron had said. They were dressed fairly nicely, not fancy or anything, but still. He figured they were going on a date and hoped Pansy wasn't nearby to see. He knew that Pansy really liked her, even if she pretended she didn't care.</p><p>He dully wondered what Harry would be doing while they were gone, but decided wondering about it would just make him miss him more.</p><p>----------------------------</p><p>Harry paced around his dorm room, Ron had just left so he had the room to himself. He'd been thinking about Draco kissing him for days and it was starting to hurt his brain. He had a million questions.</p><p>Firstly, how could he just kiss him so easily? Maybe it was different in the wizarding world, but if you did that in the muggle world and you weren't 100% sure the other person was gay you were at least guaranteed a punch in the face, and that was probably getting off easy.</p><p>Secondly, does this mean Draco is gay? And he likes me? The thought was so puzzling to him, he hadn't seen any signs of it.</p><p>Then again, when he thought about it, Draco had never really been reserved with touching him. The amount of times they'd held hands was staggering. Harry felt himself heat up at the thought. Was he thinking I liked him that entire time-?</p><p>Thirdly, what is the wizarding world's opinion on homosexuality? This was probably the most puzzling. He could remember all the times Vernon would yell about people engaging in immoral acts and how "all those fags are going to burn hell!" Harry couldn't picture a society where homosexuality was a normal thing, he supposed he should probably look into it since he was part of that world now.</p><p>He was also wondering how long Draco had liked him for, if Draco had thought he liked him back, if he did like Draco back.</p><p>That couldn't be though, he had liked Ginny and Cho. Both of them were definitely girls.</p><p>He really liked being with Draco though.</p><p>He also liked being with Ron.</p><p>It was different though.</p><p>His head felt like it was spinning.</p><p>Harry decided it might be better to get out of his room.</p><p>He was at the end of the stairwell when he looked up and saw Draco across the room, completely alone in the corner of the room. He looked like he was studying but Harry could tell by the way his eyes stared blankly at the same spot on the page, that he was thinking about other things.</p><p>Well what would it hurt, he thought, making his way over to Draco's table.</p><p>He was at the table when Draco finally noticed him, practically jumping out of his skin as he took in Harry's form.</p><p>"Hey," Harry said awkwardly, avoiding Draco's eyes.</p><p>"Hey," Draco said, and it almost sounded like a question.</p><p>"Do you-" Harry paused, gathering up the courage, "do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me today? I want to talk."</p><p>Draco studied him for a second. It definitely wasn't a date, but it might be a chance at being friends again. "Sure, I'd love to. Let me put away my books though," he said, quickly rounding up his things and rushing up the stairs to his room. He almost tripped on one of the steps in his rush and felt his cheeks flush as he heard Harry laugh from below.</p><p>When Draco returned a few minutes later he was carrying Harry's scarf. "You uh, forgot this in the astronomy tower. I figured you'd want it back."</p><p>Harry took the scarf cautiously, remembering when he had wrapped it around Draco's neck just two weeks ago. "Thanks."</p><p>The walk to Hogsmeade was quieter than usual and when they reached the Three Broomsticks for lunch it was boarding on awkward.</p><p>Draco shuffled his feet under the table, staring hard down at his butterbeer that had been placed in front of him a minute ago. "I just wanted to apologize," Draco finally said, not looking up, "I shouldn't have just kissed you. If we can still be friends I'd like that." He felt his hands find the cup and his fingers wrap around it.</p><p>"Yeah, I'd like that," Harry said, watching as Draco's head flew up to meet his eyes.</p><p>"Wait really?"</p><p>"Yeah, of course. Did you think I didn't?"</p><p>"Well, no," Draco said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat, "I mean, I really thought you hated me now. I was surprised when you invited me here."</p><p>Harry felt surprised for a moment before realizing the way he acted must have been pretty horrible and then he felt ashamed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to- I was just shocked I guess."</p><p>"Yeah," Draco said quietly, looking down again.</p><p>"Is-" Harry paused wondering if it was something he should even ask, but figured he might as well since they were already here, "is being gay, something common in the wizarding world?"</p><p>Draco looked at him shocked for a moment, there were a million things he was expecting Harry to ask him, but that definitely wasn't one. "Well, not common exactly. Why do you ask?"</p><p>"Well, I mean in the muggle world, it's not something you talk about. If you know what I mean."</p><p>"Oh," realization seemed to dawn on Draco's face, "I mean, it's not common, but it's still accepted. It's a natural thing, why wouldn't they accept it?"</p><p>"I don't know," Harry said, turning away to stare out the window. He was surprised to say the least, he'd never have thought it was possible for it to be considered normal growing up. It really went against everything Uncle Vernon said. Though, that wasn't very surprising, he was ignorant about a lot.</p><p>Draco stared down at his cup, realizing the change in mood. "How are you doing on your arithmancy homework?" Draco said, trying to offer a different topic.</p><p>Harry thankfully took it, "Terrible," he groaned, "I would fail that class without you."</p><p>Draco let out a laugh.</p>
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<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>October 31, 1998</p><p>It was Halloween and there was to be a party in the eighth year dorms. Dean and Seamus were in charge of bringing alcohol as they seemed to be the best at sneaking unbelievable amounts of alcohol into Hogwarts. The party was supposed to start in ten minutes and Harry was lounging lazily in the corner of the room watching out across the common room as Pansy went through the alcohol piled on the table in a way that she seemed to think wasn't suspicious. Harry figured she would be tipsy before the party even started.</p><p>He looked up when he heard noise from the stairs to see Hermione and Ron heading down.</p><p>Hermione noticed him a moment later, "Ah! Hey Harry, have you been sitting down here long?" she asked sitting down in the chair next to him.</p><p>"Not very long," Harry said looking back across the room to where Pansy was gulping down some sort of clear liquid, "I've been entertained by that anyway."</p><p>Hermione looked in the direction Harry nodded to see Pansy finishing off her cup.</p><p>"She's going to be drunk soon if she keeps at that," Ron muttered, shaking his head.</p><p>Harry couldn't help but agree, but before he could say so, he caught sight of Draco coming down the stairs. He was dressed in dark clothes that hugged his figure and Harry willed his heart rate to calm down.</p><p>Draco headed to Pansy first and he seemed to be admonishing her.</p><p>Ron snickered, "Seems like she's getting told off." Pansy was putting down the bottle she had just picked up when the rest of eighth years started showing up.</p><p>------------------------------------</p><p>The colors were pretty, Harry couldn't help but think as he stumbled around the room a little light headed. Someone had done some spell to make colored lights flash around the room and music was playing out of a gramophone in the corner. People were glowing all over the room though, adding to the haze of color that filled the room.</p><p>Nothing could compare to the person beside him though. Harry looked to the right, where Draco had been next to him for the last hour. After he'd made sure Pansy was going to pace herself, he'd glued himself to Harry's side as Ron and Hermione had gone off to dance.</p><p>Draco was a glowing ball of red light now. It was quite dazzling and it was even better now that it didn't give him a headache. Harry giggled a little drunkenly as he stumbled a bit into Draco's side.</p><p>"I think it might be time to get some fresh air," Draco said, taking the drink from Harry's hands and replacing it with water, "Come on, follow me."</p><p>Harry followed Draco as he made his way out of the common room and to the astronomy tower. Draco thought it was a bit of a miracle Filch didn't run into them, but they made it to the top of the tower safely.</p><p>"Better?" Draco asked, watching as Harry took a deep breath of the cold October air.</p><p>"Mmm," Harry mumbled, taking a drink of the water, leaning into Draco a bit.</p><p>Draco tried to ignore the way his arm felt on fire where Harry leaned into him, their fingers brushing on the railing.</p><p>"What are you thinking about?" Draco asked after a moment of comfortable silence and then suddenly wished he hadn't.</p><p>"I'm just-" Harry sighed a bit, taking another sip of water and looking out over the grounds, "I'm a bit worried about what the whole potion means for Hogwarts and well... everyone I guess. If a death eater did manage to sneak into Hogwarts, I doubt they're going to just stop after one failed potion."</p><p>Harry looked up at him and Draco gulped, his face getting a bit hot in his nervousness, and he had to look away. "I have a feeling it wasn't a death eater," he said and Harry looked up at him, a questioning look on his face, "I just mean, don't you think it was a little sloppy? They could have just switched out the potion to something else, that probably would have had better results. Think about it, what do you think they wanted to accomplish by dumping veritaserum into the potion?"</p><p>"When you put it like that, I suppose you're right," Harry said thoughtfully.</p><p>"Exactly. Let's say only one of the potions took effect, what would either of those do for their cause? You don't know any information that they'd be willing to be caught for and logically what would putting you under a love potion do?</p><p>"And as for if the effects had mixed, can you think of any kind of mix that would be useful to them?"</p><p>"Maybe they had been hoping it'd blow up," Harry said grimly.</p><p>Draco made a face, "Well I suppose that's a possibility."</p><p>"But you don't think that's it."</p><p>"Not really."</p><p>"Who do you think it was then?"</p><p>Draco could feel sweat forming on the back of his neck, despite the cold air. "Not sure. I suppose someone could have accidentally spilled amortentia into the potion and doesn't want to get in trouble, so they don't come forward." He knew Harry wasn't gullible enough to believe that, but he could hope. Maybe if he could get Harry to think that, he could get the rest of the staff to believe it too, then Pansy could get off scot free and they could put it all behind them.</p><p>Harry wasn't dumb though, "but why would a student have amortentia in the first place?"</p><p>"Well it's not like it's extremely hard to get your hands on a more diluted version of it."</p><p>"I suppose," Harry said. Draco could tell he didn't buy it, but maybe it eased his fears a bit at the least.</p><p>"On the bright side, the colors are sort of pretty," Harry said with a small smile.</p><p>"Yeah?"</p><p>"Yeah, it seemed the whole room was glowing while we were in the common room, I think the flashing lights added to the effect."</p><p>"Are you able to see what color you are?"</p><p>"Nah, I don't think so at least. Haven't figured out how to, if I am able to."</p><p>"Maybe I should go drink some of that potion so I can let you know. I'm interested to see what everyone looks like too."</p><p>Harry laughed and Draco loved the way his eyes seemed to glow in the starlight. Their arms brushed as Harry spoke, "You wouldn't want to go through the beginning though, all the colors made my head feel like it was going to split open. Like a permanent hang-over."</p><p>"Hmmm, yeah maybe if I could by-pass the headache," Draco said, bumping Harry's shoulder with his. Harry smiled in return.</p><p>"Are you planning to do anything for Christmas break?" Harry asked.</p><p>"You know it's only October right?"</p><p>"Only? Tomorrow is November which means winter break is less than two months away. Plus, I thought you know your holiday plans months in advance. Don't you Malfoys through huge Christmas parties or something in that huge manner of yours? With all your other rich pure-blood families?" Harry teased.</p><p>"Oh ha ha."</p><p>"I'm right aren't I?" Harry laughed, "That's the face you make when you know I'm right!"</p><p>"Only partially. We haven't had a ball for a while, you can imagine why. I can't say I miss them though."</p><p>"Why not?"</p><p>"Well I only ever really knew a few people there. Well I mean, I knew everyone, but I wasn't friends with anyone except Pansy, Blaise, Crabbe, and Goyle. So, the parties were always really boring, just a bunch of walking around and greeting people. My father would make me dance with all the young women around my age."</p><p>"He made you dance with every single one?"</p><p>"Well, not every single one," Draco explained, "Marriages are typically arranged, unless you pick well on your own. That means that I should be looking for potential matches at the balls, or my parents would pick for me. Though, as you know, I'm not particularly interested in women," both Harry and Draco blushed as they remembered their last time up at the top of the astronomy tower.</p><p>"I thought you said being gay was pretty accepted."</p><p>"It is, but that doesn't change my duty as the oldest, and only, son. As the one carrying on the family name, I need to marry well and produce an heir. My parents don't really care what I do after as long as I'm only with people of a similar status. Though, it doesn't much matter now. My family has the same status level as the Weasley's now."</p><p>"Hey-"</p><p>"I'm not being mean. That's just a fact." Harry sighed and Draco continued, "Not to mention, my fathers in Azkaban and my mother never was as strict about who I associate with as my father."</p><p>"So you're not going to marry for status anymore?"</p><p>"Nah," Draco leaned on his elbows that rested on the railing, "If I marry, it'll be for love."</p><p>Harry smiled at him and Draco smiled back.</p><p>Draco's eyes seemed to be silver and his blonde hair was glowing in the light. Harry could feel himself leaning in before he could take a moment to think.</p><p>His brain started working again right before it was too late and he leaned back, giving a small cough to clear his throat, "We should probably head back. I imagine the party is almost over by now."</p><p>Draco rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly as he agreed, watching for a moment as Harry walked towards the exit before catching up.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>November 3, 1998</p><p>"Happy anniversary," Ron greeted Harry when he sat down at the Gryffindor table in the dining hall for breakfast.</p><p>"What?"</p><p>"Today is a full moon, the first since the whole potions thing. So it's kinda like an anniv-" Ron was cut off as Hermione elbowed him in the side with a glare. "What? I'm just trying to make light of the situation."</p><p>"Calling it an anniversary makes it sound like a good thing though," Hermione said, and Ron groaned.</p><p>"It's alright, we know that this potion is going to take longer than one moon cycle at least. You can add that to the short list of things we know," Harry said with a sigh and Hermione gave him a knowing look.</p><p>As much as Harry tried not to show it, he was worried about what the potion meant for the safety of Hogwarts, Hermione could tell. Even if it seemed as though it may have just been an accident, with no evidence on the contrary.</p><p>"We'll figure it out, I'm sure. For the meantime, we can keep trying to think of what the colors mean, it could be something interesting," Hermione said.</p><p>"Yeah, that's true, though I have no ideas what they may mean," Harry said.</p><p>"Well I was thinking about the potions that were mixed together: Amortentia and Veritaserum. On its own, amortentia is a love potion and veritaserum is a truth serum, so what if the colors have to do with love?"</p><p>Ron seemed to brighten immediately, "Ohh that's smart 'Mione! I didn't even think of that!"</p><p>Hermione blushed at the praise, "I know you said you only saw four colors, but are they different shades? Because, my first thought was that maybe the colors correspond to soulmates, and that's how the veritaserum ties in. Like only two people have the same shade as each other."</p><p>"I haven't really seen any different shades, it's mostly just the brightness of the color that changes, like someone dimming or brightening a light. And even then, pink and red are the only colors that ever glow brighter."</p><p>"Hmmm," Hermione mumbled, staring down at her plate, "Well I suppose we can scratch that idea off the list then. What about admiration? That could be similar to love and we don't exactly know what the effect of the veritaserum is."</p><p>"Oh! And the colors could correspond to how much you admire someone!" Ron chimed in.</p><p>"Exactly! And then, the brighter the color, the more admiration or respect you're feeling for someone!"</p><p>"Only problem is that I haven't seen anyone change color except Ginny and Luna."</p><p>"Ginny and Luna?" Ron asked.</p><p>"Yeah, I saw them a couple days ago, and they were both red now instead of pink."</p><p>"Well that changes things a bit I guess," Hermione said, running her hand over her face, "though, maybe we can talk to them and see if they did anything new in the past few days, if so we could try to look for a pattern between people of the same color."</p><p>"That's not a bad idea, we could try catching her later at lunch or something," Ron said, excited to be of use when it seemed like Hermione and Harry were the only ones with any useful information on the subject.</p><p>"Hey," someone said behind Harry and he was surprised when he turned around to see Draco.</p><p>"Hey," Harry replied dumbly, mostly because he was a bit surprised to see him at the Gryffindor, but also a bit due to the fact that his hair was falling loosely around his face in a way that made him look a bit nicer than Harry would care to admit.</p><p>"Can I sit here today," Draco asked, fidgeting a little and Harry realized that he was nervous. Draco being nervous is rather cute, Harry thought before shutting the whole idea down. He was forced back into the present when he realized Draco was still talking, "Pansy and Blaise are driving me a bit crazy today."</p><p>Before Harry could even think about it, he was agreeing and Draco was sitting down next to him - rather closely - and getting some looks from other students.</p><p>Hermione looked over to Harry wondering if he realized just how awkward the situation felt, only to find Harry dumbly staring at Draco as he mumbled thanks.</p><p>"No problem," Harry said, feeling his heart speed up stupidly. "What were they doing today?" Harry asked, trying to joke a bit, and Draco colored rapidly.</p><p>"Oh nothing, don't worry about it. Just normal Pansy and Blaise stuff," Draco said, ducking his head down to hide his flush. Ron and Hermione stared at the display awkwardly across the table until Dean and Seamus seemed to come out of nowhere, plopping down next to Hermione.</p><p>"Excited for the Quidditch match Saturday? Gryffindor against Slytherin!" Seamus said loudly, taking up some food from the dishes in front of him.</p><p>"Grateful for the conversation Ron replied enthusiastically back, "Oh yeah! It'll be weird watching from the sidelines instead of playing, though."</p><p>"Maybe you could rope the Gryffindor team into letting you practice with them one day," Hermione joked.</p><p>"It'll be interesting watching from the stands for once though," Harry said, joining the conversation after finally tearing his eyes away from Draco.</p><p>"What are you talking about, just watching is boring," Draco complained, falling into easy conversation with the Gryffindors.</p><p>--------------------------------</p><p>School had just ended for the day when McGonagall stopped him in the hall to tell him to go see Pomfrey.</p><p>"Oh good, that was fast," Madam Pomfrey said when Harry entered the hospital wing. "I have some more information on the potion that you'll probably be happy to hear. Snape has been trying to figure out when it'll wear off, and it seems like it will only take three moon cycles. Meaning, the effects will wear off on New Years day at precisely 7:51pm."</p><p>Relief flooded Harry as he said his thanks for letting him know, and headed back to the dorms. It was great to know that there was an end in sight to the potions effects. Even if it hadn't seemed to do anything bad to him, it still made him nervous.</p><p>"Oh hey, there you are," Draco greeted him as he entered the common room, "you disappeared after class, I was wondering where you went."</p><p>"Oh, Pomfrey told me that the potion is supposed to wear off by New Years day. At 7:51 to be exact."</p><p>"Oh! That's great news!" Draco said excitedly.</p><p>"Yeah, I'm just worried if it'll do anything before then."</p><p>"It hasn't yet though, right? So why would it do something now?"</p><p>"Yeah, I guess you're right, it just seems too simple. You know?"</p><p>"Yeah, I get you, but I suppose you should just be happy that it seems to be simple right? I am at least. On a brighter note though, would you like to work on homework together and then we could go up to the astronomy tower or something."</p><p>Harry smiled, he always enjoyed hanging out with Draco, "Alright, let me go get my books from my room and we can work till dinner."</p><p>----------------------------</p><p>After struggling through homework and then eating dinner as fast as they both could - though they wouldn't ever admit it - they were both seated at the top of the astronomy tower happily leaning against each other.</p><p>Draco let a soft sigh out as he shifted his head on Harry's shoulder. "I have something I want to show you," Harry said after a few more minutes, "I think you'll think it's cool."</p><p>"Yeah?" Draco said softly, not making a move to sit up. Harry could tell he was sleepy.</p><p>"Yeah, here," Harry said, handing him a blank piece of parchment that he'd dug out of his robe's pocket.</p><p>Draco turned the parchment over and opened it with a curious look, "A blank piece of parchment? I hate to tell you this, but I have seen a lot of parchment before," he said jokingly.</p><p>"Ha. ha," Harry said, "place your wand tip on the paper and say 'I solemnly swear I'm up to no good'."</p><p>Draco raised a brow, making his voice as serious as possible before saying, "I don't know, that sounds pretty dirty, Harry," and then burst out laughing.</p><p>Harry rolled his eyes, pushing Draco off him, who fell backwards still laughing. "You're too tired, you're getting loopy," he paused, letting Draco catch his breath, "just do it."</p><p>"Alright, alright," Draco said, still breathless, before doing as he was told. He watched in awe as ink slowly spread across the parchment, and opened it up to check out the contents. "Is this... Hogwarts?"</p><p>"Yup," Harry said, pointing to their names at the top of the tower, side by side. It made him blush a bit, seeing their names all alone together at the top of the tower. "It shows where everyone is and it moves with them."</p><p>"Wow," Draco said, running their fingers over their names. "So is this how you never seem to get in trouble even though you never seem to be in bed on time?" he said with a smirk.</p><p>"It's a strong contributing factor," Harry laughed, watching Draco's eyes trail over the paper, trying to pick out names of people he knew.</p><p>He found the eighth-year dorms quickly, pointing to the names of Hermione and Ron alone, well after curfew, in the common room, "Think they're making out in there?" he asked, laughing at the disgusted face Harry made.</p><p>"Ew, gross, I don't even want to think about that," Harry groaned, moving to snatch the map back.</p><p>Draco laughed, pulling the map out of his reach, "I'm not done looking."</p><p>"You are after that comment," Harry complained, but didn't make a move to grab it.</p><p>"Not too many people out of bed after curfew, huh?"</p><p>"Well, not like there's much to do this late anyway unless you're dating someone," Harry said and then blushed a deep red when his eyes met Draco's before turning away quickly.</p><p>If Draco saw the deep blush coating Harry's cheeks, he didn't comment, just let his eyes continue to trail over names.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>November 4, 1998</p><p>"Shit," Harry said when he woke up the next day, Draco curled up against his chest, on the floor of the astronomy tower. They were definitely late for class if the sun shining brightly against his eyes was anything to go by.</p><p>Harry thought Draco was starting to wake when he felt him stir, but all he did was curl further into Harry's chest. Harry could feel Draco's breath coast against his collarbone and he suddenly felt very hot. He shook him lightly to wake him up, partly because they were going to be very late, and partly because if Draco stayed in that position against him much longer he might go insane.</p><p>"Draco!" Harry whisper-yelled. No response.</p><p>"Draco!" Harry said a little louder, with a shake of his shoulder, and Draco finally started to move.</p><p>"Wha-" Draco murmured, confused why Harry was the one waking him, and unsure where he was.</p><p>"Draco, we're going to be late to class, we fell asleep!" Harry said, rushing the words out.</p><p>Draco sat up quickly, and then groaned as blood rushed to his head. "What time is it?"</p><p>Harry quickly cast a tempus, "9:15"</p><p>"Shit," Draco said, scrambling to get up, class had started 15 minutes ago.</p><p>They both rushed back to the common room to grab their book bags, straightening their clothes as they went.</p><p>They both burst through the door to the greenhouse, out of breath and hair a mess. Everyone stared in shock at their messy, flushed, state as they both hurried to sit down, trying to ignore the looks. Harry could only imagine what everyone was thinking.</p><p>"Where were you two?" Ron whisper-yelled to Harry as the professor tried to grab the class' attention once again.</p><p>"Yeah, class started over twenty minutes ago, and we didn't see you at breakfast," Hermione hissed to them. They were all seated in a line, Ron and Hermione to his left and Draco to his right with Pansy and Blaise next to him. Harry figured they were currently grilling Draco too.</p><p>"We just fell asleep and didn't have an alarm," Harry mumbled, trying to figure out what on earth he was supposed to be working on, and praying that Hermione and Ron would do the same. He wanted them to let it go, not to mention that they were both glowing brighter than Draco was currently, and it was hurting his head to look at them. He wasn't so lucky though.</p><p>"Where on earth did you fall asleep at?" Hermione continued, "Neither of us saw you come back last night, and you weren't in bed when we woke up."</p><p>Harry remembered seeing them on the marauder's map last night, up late in the common room and his lips turned into a small smirk. He had an idea to get her off his case, "and what were you doing up so late? Draco and I were looking at the marauder's map last night, and you two were up oftly late in the common room last night." Harry was only teasing her to get her off his case, so he wasn't expecting it when her face heated up like a tomato. Then, if he wasn't surprised enough, she let out a loud gasp that drew the entire class' attention, which only made her turn redder.</p><p>When the teacher finally got everyone's attention, again, with a pointed glare in their direction, Hermione leaned towards Harry and lowered her voice, "I know what the colors mean."</p><p>------------------------------</p><p>Harry's head was still whirring with ideas as to what Hermione thought the colors meant. They had agreed to talk about it at lunch because Hermione had decided they needed to pay attention to class and they couldn't do that if they were talking about the colors.</p><p>When he finally made it to the great hall for lunch, Ron was as red as his hair and arguing about something with Hermione.</p><p>"You can't just-"</p><p>"He has to know or it won't make any sense-" Hermione was saying when he sat down, interrupting her, "oh, hey Harry."</p><p>Harry greeted them both, sitting down, "So what was your idea?"</p><p>"Well, I'm thinking it has to do with emotions," Hermione started. Ron wouldn't meet his eyes, his face flushed. "As in each color represents a different emotion, but not necessarily each emotion you're feeling at each time of the day. I think Red means love, Pink means crush, and blue means you don't currently like anyone like that."</p><p>"And green?" Harry asked, intrigued, "and brighter vs dimmer colors."</p><p>"Well, if the colors have to do with liking someone, what about those who don't like people, ever? Like aromantic people," Hermione said, nodding as Harry seemed to be piecing it together.</p><p>"So green means you're aromantic?"</p><p>"Exactly, and the brighter the color, the more you're feeling the emotion."</p><p>It made sense to Harry, Ron and Hermione were clearly in love with each other and always seemed to glow brighter when they were particularly happy with each other. "How did you piece it together?"</p><p>"Well last night Ron and I.... hung out... and," Hermione started to say, and that's when it finally hit him. Draco was right, or at least partly, Ron and Hermione had been up late cause they were- ugh, he didn't want to think about it, he got the gist and he understood why they were glowing so bright this morning.</p><p>"It's okay, I get it," Harry said, shaking his hands in front of his face, realizing why Ron was reusing to look at him.</p><p>"And I realized what pink was because of Dean and Seamus," Hermione said, trying to continue the conversation.</p><p>"Dean and Seamus?"</p><p>"Well they've been dating for about six or so months now, and then the other day you said they both were red now, which kind of tipped me off."</p><p>"Wait, what?" Harry said, shocked. They're dating? Since when?</p><p>Hermione looked at him confused, "Am I wrong? You did say they're both red now right?"</p><p>"No, not that, I mean- they're dating? Since when?" Harry asked, surprise written all over his face.</p><p>"Since about six months ago?" Hermione said, confused now and Harry realized he'd just have to let it go or people were going to think he was weird.</p><p>I mean, Draco did talk to me about this several weeks ago, Harry thought to himself, wizards don't care about gender. It was still surprising that Hermione didn't care though, as she was muggle. Though, that would be typical of her caring nature, he supposed.</p><p>Thinking of Draco, though, brought a whole new issue to the forefront of his brain. Draco glows red. Not only that, but he always seemed to be glowing brightly, almost blinding at times. The only people who had out-shined him - literally - were Ron and Hermione.</p><p>Draco was in love with him.</p><p>Not just had a crush on him, but was in love with him.</p><p>Harry felt terrible now about pushing him away and yelling at him like he did a while ago. But on top of his guilt, Harry could feel his stomach turning with nerves, though he had no idea from what.</p><p>His eyes made their way past Ron and Hermione to where Draco was sitting at his table across the hall, both face and red haze glowing brightly.</p><p>Before he could help it, he felt himself give Draco a goofy smile. One that Draco happily returned when their eyes met.</p><p>"You know, now that I'm thinking about it, didn't you say that Draco was red?" Ron snickered a bit.</p><p>Harry flushed, as he realized Ron had come to the same conclusion he had: Draco was in love. He could only pray he didn't realize with whom.</p><p>"Oh yeah, that's right," Hermione said, thoughtful, "I wonder with whom, though."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>A/N: Hey all, so I want to be honest with you guys and let you know that I may run late or accidently skip update days during the next few weeks, please bear with me. My brother was diagnosed with Leukemia this week and my whole family is very worried about him. So if I don't update, that's why, though I'll try to keep the updates regular.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Sorry for my long absence!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>November 6, 1998</p><p>Breakfast had been pretty quiet, except for the low murmur of people talking about the quidditch match the next day. It was to be between Slytherin and Gryffindor, which meant it was going to be a rowdy match.</p><p>It had seemed that would be all anyone would be talking about for the next few days, until McGonagall announced that she had good news: the staff had agreed that it'd be a good idea to hold another Yule ball for those in fourth year or older. It had been decided that it'd be a good activity everyone could have fun at, especially after the last year.</p><p>After that announcement, it was like everyone completely forgot about the quidditch match. The hall seemed to explode with chatter. Girls were worrying about getting a dress and guys were talking about who they would invite.</p><p>Ron and Hermione were going to take each other, no doubt. That's when Harry realized something: he had no one to take.</p><p>He had taken one of the Patil twins in fourth year, but the whole thing was kind of a mess and he didn't want to put either of them through that again. All his friends had boyfriends and girlfriends now as well, so it wasn't like he could go with someone just as friends.</p><p>His eyes suddenly flitted over to Draco across the hall and the thought of taking him crossed his mind for a second before he quickly shut it down. He wasn't going to entertain that thought even for a second.</p><p>"Any idea who you'll take, mate?" Ron asked.</p><p>"Not a clue," Harry mumbled, pushing his food around his plate. The fact that going with Draco even crossed his mind had him a bit stressed now.</p><p>"Well I doubt anyone would actually turn you down," Ron laughed. "I've heard a lot of girls whispering about you recently," he continued before Hermione smacked him in the head.</p><p>"He shouldn't go around just asking random girls. That could seriously hurt one of them," Hermione berated.</p><p>Harry had no plans to go around asking random girls, though, and for some reason the idea of bringing a date just didn't sit well with him.</p><p>"Don't worry," he assured Hermione, "I wasn't planning on doing that anyway. I'll probably end up just going alone."</p><p>Hermione gave him a contemplative look before seeming to give up with a sigh, "Well you could still take someone you know, just don't do whatever Ron is suggesting."</p><p>-------------------------------</p><p>After breakfast Harry had a free period that he planned to use as time to go explain the color's meaning to Madam Pomfrey. On his way there, though, all he could hear were girls stressing about what they were going to wear.</p><p>The whole thing gave him a headache and he had no idea why.</p><p>Pomfrey was sitting at her desk when he walked in and she gave him a worried look.</p><p>"Did something happen with the colors?" she quickly asked, sweeping over to him.</p><p>"Nothing bad, but Hermione, Ron and I are pretty sure we know what the colors mean now."</p><p>Pomfrey sent him a curious look before gesturing for him to continue.</p><p>"Well, we think that they all have to do with your romantic feelings. Like, red means you love someone, pink a crush, blue you don't currently like anyone, and green means aromantic or something. Green was Hermione's idea."</p><p>"I see," Pomfrey said, writing on her clipboard, "What made you guess this specifically?"</p><p>"Uh," Harry wasn't sure he wanted to explain that the only reason he knew was because his two best friends got laid to the school nurse. "We realized because of the brightness of the colors," it wasn't a total lie, "the brighter the color the more you are feeling love or like towards a person."</p><p>"Hmmm," Pomfrey said, worrying her pen between her fingers, her eyebrows scrunched up in concentration, "I have a feeling you all are probably right..."</p><p>Relief flooded Harry, if she was saying that they were probably right, they most likely were. It felt like a load of stress taken off his shoulders. If they knew what the colors meant, there was less chance of anything going wrong with the potion that they didn't foresee.</p><p>"I'm going to take this to Professor Snape and see what he has to say. I believe that you are right though, thank you for bringing this to me," she said with a small smile, "I'll let you know what he says."</p><p>Harry made his way out of the castle to where Care of Magical Creatures was being held. He had a feeling that he may be a bit late.</p><p>When he got there he realized it didn't matter much as Hagrid seemed to be having trouble keeping everyone's attention anyway over the chatter about the ball and Quidditch game.</p><p>"Did I miss anything?" Harry asked Ron and Hermione when he arrived.</p><p>"Nah, everyone's been talking too much to get much done anyway," Ron replied, "Where did you go anyway, you disappeared right after breakfast."</p><p>"Ah, yeah sorry I went to Madam Pomfrey to tell her about the color meanings. I wanted to hurry to not be late to this class, but I suppose it didn't matter much anyway," Harry said, looking towards where Hagrid was trying and failing to get students to pay attention.</p><p>"I don't think much work is going to get done today," Hermione said with a sigh.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Chapter 12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>November 16, 1998</p>
<p>Hermione was starting to think that Harry may be going off the deep end again, and by that, she meant he was stalking Malfoy again.</p>
<p>While it shouldn't be as weird to witness because she had seen him do the same thing all of sixth year, it still was strange watching him stare at Draco across the room for the tenth time this week. She figured the reason she found it so weird was that they were actually friends now. She had no idea what was going through his head either. The look on his face was a mix between contemplative and nervous and a whole slew of other emotions she couldn't place. The whole thing was weird.</p>
<p>"Why don't you just go talk to him?" Hermione hissed at him across their shared desk in potions.</p>
<p>"What?" Harry said, seemingly startled out of whatever he was thinking about while staring Malfoy down across the room.</p>
<p>"I said, why don't you go talk to him? Do you think he's up to something again like in sixth year? 'Cause if so, I want you to stop entertaining that thought right here and just go talk to him."</p>
<p>"I don't think he's up to anything!" Harry said, defensive.</p>
<p>Hermione raised her eyebrows at him, "Okay, I'll humor you. If you aren't stalking him because you think he's up to something, then why are you?"</p>
<p>Harry spluttered in indignance and a few people looked over at him, he blushed red before lowering his head and hissing back, "I'm not stalking him."</p>
<p>Hermione just gave him a we both know that is bullshit look in response.</p>
<p>"I'm not! I'm just..."</p>
<p>"You're just what? Watching him? All-day long? Following him around? What do you want to call it, take your pick."</p>
<p>Harry groaned, "I'm not stalking him, I just happen to be looking at him... whenever you look at me."</p>
<p>"Mmhmm," Ron mumbled next to him and Harry shot him a glare.</p>
<p>---------------------------------------</p>
<p>Harry was not stalking Draco. He wasn't.</p>
<p>He was just curious about him, that's all, and trying to understand why he kept thinking about the night in the astronomy tower after the Quidditch match. He was also trying to understand why he couldn't think about the Yule Ball next month without thinking about Draco as well. They always seemed to exist in the same space next to each other in his mind.</p>
<p>Draco seemed to notice Harry looking at him across the library, startling Harry, and picked up his stuff to go sit next to him.</p>
<p>"Hey, didn't realize you were in here too. You should've come sit with me, or called me over," Draco said with a smile and Harry could practically hear his heartbeat. He wondered if it was as audible to Draco as it was to him.</p>
<p>"Didn't know you were in here either until I looked over and saw you a second ago either," Harry lied, looking down at his book before Draco looked at him too closely and caught him in the lie.</p>
<p>"Well, what are you working on?" Draco said, leaning over to inspect the book that Harry had not looked at once since he noticed Draco was in the library.</p>
<p>"Uh," Harry started, realizing he had completely forgotten what he was working on. He looked down at the book, hoping it hadn't been too much time since Draco asked the question, frantically searching the page for anything that would tell him what it was again. "Potions," he finally got out after noticing the current page was a list of potions ingredients.</p>
<p>"Oh good, I just started on that actually, we could work together," Draco said, and Oh God, he was scooting closer to Harry so their arms were touching. His loose hair falling slightly in his face as he leaned over to look at his work and Harry could smell his lavender shampoo. He could feel his face heating rapidly and tried not to stare too hard at him.</p>
<p>He really shouldn't be reacting like this, this was no different than any other time they've hung out and studied. But, oh lord, Draco was glowing a bright red and Harry finally understood what it meant.</p>
<p>"And that's how far I've gotten with it, you?" Draco finished and Harry realized he had been talking.</p>
<p>"What?" Harry asked dumbly.</p>
<p>"I asked how much of this project you have done," Draco said with a small laugh.</p>
<p>"Oh, um," Harry looked down at his paper which only had about a sentence on it, "not much."</p>
<p>"Well, good thing I'm here then."</p>
<p>--------------------------------------------</p>
<p>Dinner time came too soon and Harry realized he had spent more time staring at Draco than working and he still hadn't done much. Well, he could always work later he supposed.</p>
<p>"Want to head down to the dining hall for dinner?" Draco asked, when Harry looked over it seemed like he actually had a lot more done of the project than him. He felt a little jealous.</p>
<p>"Yeah, okay," Harry said, glad to finally shut the textbook. Though it wasn't like he was reading it much anyway.</p>
<p>When they finally reached the dining hall it was already packed with people and they had to squeeze in to fit near Hermione and Ron at the table.</p>
<p>"Oh, good," Hermione said as she noticed him sitting down, "you're finally here, Ginny said she has some news for us."</p>
<p>Harry looked over to where Ginny was nervously shifting in her seat and immediately felt like it wasn't going to be good news. Hermione looked happy though, so he figured it probably wasn't too bad, she was usually good at telling how people were feeling.</p>
<p>Hermione nodded at Ginny, a go-ahead kind of motion and Ginny finally looked around at them.</p>
<p>"Well, uh- I have a girlfriend," Ginny started and Ron cut her off with a whoop of excitement, they all turned to stare at him.</p>
<p>"What? I'm happy for her," He said to all the stares he was getting, "and I have a feeling I know who it is and I'm glad for that."</p>
<p>"Yeah?" Ginny said with a bit of an amused smirk, "And who's that?"</p>
<p>"Luna right?" Ron said, seemingly unsure now, "You're making me question it now though. It is Luna right?"</p>
<p>"Yeah, it's Luna," she said with a bit of a laugh, "I suppose I should at least finish my announcement though, and say I'm bi."</p>
<p>Hermione wrapped her up in a congrats sort of hug and Ginny smiled, happily accepting it.</p>
<p>----------------------------</p>
<p>Harry stopped Ginny in the hall after dinner as soon as he made sure no one else was around.</p>
<p>"What's up?" Ginny said when he pulled her into a bit of a secluded hallway.</p>
<p>"Uh, it's about something you said earlier..." Harry said, trailing off. Ginny stayed silent though, waiting for him to continue and he eventually did. "You said you were bi, and I was wondering what that meant?"</p>
<p>"Oh that?" Ginny laughed, "It means I like both guys and girls. You had me worried you were pulling me aside for something bad."</p>
<p>"You like both? That's a thing?" Harry asked, reeling from the information. You could like both? He could like both?</p>
<p>"Well, yeah," Ginny said, studying him, "but there are more than three sexualities you know, there are also people like Luna who are pansexual - meaning they don't care about gender - or asexual or androsexual, the list goes on."</p>
<p>Harry stared at her a moment, still trying to get over the fact that you could like both, and that's normal. He finally found his voice after a moment of stunned silence though, "I think I am too."</p>
<p>"Yeah?" Ginny said with a small laugh, "Good for you then. What made you realize that? Was it Malfoy?" She said it like a joke but when Harry just turned redder and didn't meet her eyes she let out a small gasp, "No way! You like Malfoy!"</p>
<p>"No! I don't, I just- I don't know if I do," Harry mumbled, staring resolutely at the ground.</p>
<p>"You totally like him," Ginny snickered and Harry groaned because maybe he did like him. Just a little.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Chapter 13</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>November 7, 1998</p>
<p>The day of the Quidditch match between Slytherin and Gryffindor had finally come and Harry and Draco had been teasing each other about who was the better team for the past few hours and it was starting to grate on everyone's nerves.</p>
<p>Draco had chosen to sit at the Gryffindor table, a little too close to be just friendly, just to keep up the teasing with Harry.</p>
<p>Hermione couldn't express her gratitude when it was finally time to head down to the pitch. She couldn't take anymore of them.</p>
<p>She wanted to pull her hair out when Draco sat down next to Harry in the stands. In the Gryffindor section no less. Either he didn't notice or didn't care that he was out of place. Him and Harry argued back and forth, completely in their own world.</p>
<p>Harry had been aware of how close they pressed into each other as they talked about the match, of how close their faces got when it got particularly heated, of how their arms had practically been glued to each other since the moment they woke up.</p>
<p>It wasn't unnatural though, they spent so much time together, pressed up against each other, that it seemed more unnatural to be apart. It made him nervous how dependent on Draco he'd gotten.</p>
<p>He wouldn't trade it for a moment though as he watched him laugh next to him as the match started. Draco was stunning.</p>
<p>Harry's head jerked as he realized what he'd just thought, turning towards the match, face bright red.</p>
<p>Hermione noticed the lack of bickering immediately, turning to see Draco grinning at the match and Harry staring resoutly forward, face painted a bright red. She shook her head in exasperation.</p>
<p>The bickering was back quickly enough though as the first goal was made and Hermione let out a long suffering sigh.</p>
<p>"Ha!" Draco shouted, grabbing onto Harry's arm and shaking him a bit. It sent a shiver down his spine. "Did you see that? First point!"</p>
<p>"Yeah, yeah, but the first point doesn't determine the game!" Harry shot back.</p>
<p>"It's all about momentum," Draco said, "And by scoring the first point, we have a lot."</p>
<p>A few more points scored by Slytherin, and Draco was smirking at Harry. He wasn't worried though, there was plenty of time for Gryffindor to rebound.</p>
<p>Sure enough, points were being racked up by Gryffindor as Draco grumbled beside him.</p>
<p>"What was that about momentum now?" Harry said with a laugh.</p>
<p>"Slytherin will win," Draco said simply.</p>
<p>Slytherin didn't win, much to Draco's chagrin.</p>
<p>"Andddd Gryffindor wins again," Harry laughed. "You really need to get better at picking who will win, Draco."</p>
<p>"One day Slytherin will beat Gryffindor, you just wait," Draco grumbled.</p>
<p>"Sure, maybe one day," Harry bumped his shoulder against Draco's, giving him a small smile, "Cheer up, I'll still let you eat some of the cake Ron certainly bought for our win."</p>
<p>"Oh har har."</p>
<p>Sure enough, there were already decorations littering the common room as they returned, Ron was sure Gryffindor would win and was prepared.</p>
<p>"Oftly confident Gryffindor would win, huh?" Draco remarked, taking in the decorations.</p>
<p>"Why of course, Gryffindor always wins." Draco rolled his eyes. "But, in any case, I didn't do this. It was all Ron... and probably Dean and Seamus."</p>
<p>"They are always the ones behind this sort of thing aren't they?" Draco laughed.</p>
<p>"Well of course."</p>
<p>---------------------------------------</p>
<p>The party was loud loud, and Harry's eyes were hurting from all the lights quicker than he'd like to admit.</p>
<p>Draco found him a couple minutes later, tucked on a chair in the corner.</p>
<p>"Hey," Draco said, sitting down on the chair as well, forcing Harry to scoot over. It wasn't made for two people, though, and Draco ended up sitting on him partly.</p>
<p>"Hey," Harry murmured back.</p>
<p>"You alright?" Draco asked, concern lacing his features, handing Harry a cup of water.</p>
<p>"Yeah, eyes just hurt. Lot's of colors."</p>
<p>Draco studied him for a moment before standing up, pulling Harry with him. "Come on, let's step out."</p>
<p>Harry followed Draco mindlessly to their usual spot at the top of the astronomy tower. "I figured you could use some fresh air."</p>
<p>"Yeah. Thanks."</p>
<p>Draco sent him a smile.</p>
<p>They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Harry broke it.</p>
<p>"I know what the colors mean."</p>
<p>Draco's head whipped towards him, "You do?"</p>
<p>"Yeah."</p>
<p>After a moment, Draco realized he wasn't planning on continuing without prompting, "And? Were you just going to leave it at that?"</p>
<p>"Well, each color deals with a romantic feeling. Red, love; pink, crush; blue, not liking anyone currently; and green, aromantic," Harry glanced over at Draco, taking in the bright red haze surrounding him that never seemed to dim, "and the brighter the color, the more you're feeling that particular emotion."</p>
<p>Draco turned away with a heavy blush as he realized what that meant: he was glowing red and probably very brightly at that. Harry knew he was in love with him. Well, he knew that Harry was aware he liked him at the very least, but now he knew that those feelings went well beyond a simple crush. Draco wanted to disappear.</p>
<p>But Harry was covering Draco's hand with his own and he didn't look like he was going to be taking off or berating him for his feelings any time soon.</p>
<p>Draco felt a soft smile spread across his lips as he enjoyed the sensation of Harry's warm hand on his own.</p>
<p>He could be happy if he got to experience this.</p>
<p>Harry didn't seem to be planning on saying anymore and Draco let himself relax, leaning into Harry and resting his head on his shoulder.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Chapter 14</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>November 21, 1998</p><p>Okay, he didn’t like him just a little. He liked him a whole lot.<br/>

There was a Quidditch match again between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff today and Draco was wrapped up in a scarf that made him look impossibly small and adorable. Harry had to force himself to look away, blushing as red and Draco’s colorful haze.<br/>

They all walked down to the Quidditch pitch together. Ron and Hermione, Pansy and Blaise, all in a group at the front. Draco and Harry were both lagging behind a bit, too wrapped up in each other to even notice the growing distance between themselves and their friends.<br/>

They found themselves pressing into each other’s sides as they walked, fingers brushing together, hidden behind the layers of clothing they had on to protect them from the cold.<br/>

“Are you going to sit next to us today?” Harry asked, keeping his voice low even though he had no idea why. He felt like talking too loud would break the calm between them and he didn’t want to do that.<br/>

“Yeah,” he paused a moment as if thinking about something, before turning his face towards Harry, “if that’s alright?” He kept his voice low too and Harry decided to respond in the same tone.<br/>

“Yeah- yeah of course it’s alright, you’re always welcome.” Draco smiled at him, fingers tangling together between them slightly. Harry saw the slow blush creep up Draco’s ears and the haze glow a little brighter.<br/>

Forcing his eyes forward Harry decided he had to ask Draco to the Yule ball.<br/>

“Hey, are you going with anyone to the Yule Ball?” Harry asked, proud of himself when he didn’t sound nearly as nervous as he felt.<br/>

A sort of sad expression took over Draco’s face for a moment before he seemed to shove it away, “No, I don’t think I’m even going to go,” Draco finally said with a sigh. Harry couldn’t read the look on his face.<br/>

“You should still go,” Harry muttered, looking away. Why can’t I just ask him to go with me, Harry internally groaned, I know he likes me. I’ve just got to ask him!<br/>

“Why?” Draco asked and Harry had no response.<br/>

“Because it’s our last year?”<br/>

Draco let out a sigh and dropped his hand, “Yeah, but I don’t feel like going.” With that, he muttered about getting left behind by their friends and hurried up to them.<br/>

Harry knew he was upset, could see it in his shoulders and the expression he made as he hurried away, but he just couldn’t seem to ask him to the Yule Ball. He wanted to hit head against a wall. “I’m so dumb,” he muttered to himself, hurrying to catch up with everyone as well and resolving to try to talk to Ron and Hermione later.<br/>

Draco sat next to him for the match but not as close as he normally did, a foot of space between them, and when the match ended he quickly left muttering excuses. Harry supposed he deserved that.<br/>

----------------------------------<br/>

“And then he asked me if I was going with anyone!” Draco complained to Pansy back in her room after the Quidditch match, “He asked me that while literally holding my hand!”<br/>

“Well, are we really surprised? This is Potter we’re talking about here,” Pansy said.<br/>

“This is sad, even for him though,” Blaise said.<br/>

“Do you think he was about to ask you though?” Pansy said, gaining a contemplative look.<br/>

Draco looked at her like she’d grown a second head, “What on earth would make you think that? He very clearly turned me down.”<br/>

“He was raised by muggles though wasn’t he? Maybe he’s a closet case,” Pansy pointed out.<br/>

“That’s a good point, and what straight man holds hands with their platonic friends,” Blaise said.<br/>

“Okay, say you’re right, why didn’t he ask me then? He knows I like him. Even if I hadn’t literally kissed him, he can literally see me glowing.”<br/>

“Maybe he chickened out, this is Potter we’re talking about here.”<br/>

-----------------------------------<br/>

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all crowded around a table in the common room studying after dinner. Well, Hermione was studying. Harry and Ron had worked for about 45 minutes and then gave up in favor of playing wizards chess and complaining to Hermione about how boring studying was even though - as Hermione pointed out - they weren’t even doing so. After losing the game for the fifth time in a row, though, they had stopped again. Finals were in three weeks though and that was about the only reason Harry and Ron even agreed to stay with her and “study” at all.<br/>

Hermione looked up from her book to find Harry absently drawing on a corner of his parchment. “Harry, I’ve been meaning to ask, are you alright? You’ve seemed kind of off all day since the Quidditch match. You and Draco didn’t get into a fight, right?”<br/>

Harry let out a sigh and finally looked up to meet her eyes, “No, we didn’t get into a fight... Well not really anyway.” When Ron and Hermione both said nothing, he continued, “You know how Draco glows red…”<br/>

He trailed off, looking out the window, nervous to continue and Hermione decided to prompt him, “Yeah? Do you figure out who he likes or something?”<br/>

“Yeah, you could say that-”<br/>

“No way, you seriously figured it out?” Ron laughed a bit, suddenly interested, “Oh this is gold, you gotta tell us who it is!” Hermione shot him a look but he either didn’t see it or ignored it and kept his eyes trained on Harry.<br/>

“You can’t freak out if I tell you okay?” Harry said, mostly to Ron.<br/>

“Why would we freak out-”<br/>

“Unless it’s me,” Ron made a face, “I’d freak out if he liked me. Or ‘Mione.” Harry and Hermione both just stared at him. “What?! Don’t you think that would be super weird?”<br/>

“Maybe only because he hasn’t been around us a whole lot,” Hermione said slowly, “but I assume you’re saying that because none of us exactly got along in years past. Though, if that’s the reason, you forgot Harry in your listing there.”<br/>

Harry knew she was just joking, but it still made his stomach flip a little uneasily.<br/>

“Nah, that one I could see,” Ron said and Harry turned to gape at him, “What? You two are always together and hanging all over each other. Like you’re a pair of magnets.”<br/>

Harry had no response. Zero. Because of all the people he had expected to guess that they liked each other, Ron was the last on the list.<br/>

“Are you going to sit here and tell me I'm wrong?” Ron said, misinterpreting the silence, “It was a valid guess at the very least! With how much care he puts into his looks coupled with the fact that he has literally never looked twice at a girl - besides Pansy, but we all know she’s a lesbian - there’s absolutely no way he’s straight!”<br/>

The utter absurdity of Ron being the one to say it broke the tension and both Harry and Hermione doubled over laughing.<br/>

“Hey! Stop laughing at me, I’m serious!” Ron spluttered, indignant.<br/>

“No, no, I totally agree with you,” Hermione got out around the laughter, “it’s just that you were the one to say it.”<br/>

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?” Ron complained as Hermione and Harry slowly calmed down.<br/>

“Well, I mean, you are right,” Harry started and both Ron and Hermione turned to look at him, Harry was surprised they didn’t get whiplash.<br/>

“No way, are you for real? Does he actually like you?”<br/>

“See! I’m not crazy!”<br/>

“Didn’t say you were.”<br/>

“You implied it.”<br/>

Harry decided to break up the small argument, “Yeah, he um… well he kissed me, like a month ago.”<br/>

“HE WHAT?!” both Ron and Hermione shouted, quickly turning back to him, shock and surprise written all over their faces. Harry winced.<br/>

“Yeah, about a week after the potions incident.”<br/>

“And you didn’t tell us?!” Hermione said.<br/>

“Well, I had no idea how you’d react, to be honest, and it’s not like either of you like him much.”<br/>

Ron seemed to find that completely irrelevant though and immediately went to asking the first thing that popped into his head, “Did you kiss him back?”<br/>

Harry went completely red, “Well, uh- no - I, um, pushed him away actually.”<br/>

“Ugh, please don’t tell me you ran away after that,” Hermione groaned, rubbing her face with her hands.<br/>

“Maybe?”<br/>

“That is like the worst possible thing you could have done, was that why you two were ignoring each other for a while?”<br/>

“Yeah… I wasn’t sure what to do.”<br/>

“You’re hopeless,” Ron muttered.<br/>

“You’re one to talk,” Harry shot back, but before they could start arguing Hermione put up a hand.<br/>

“This still doesn’t explain why you got into a fight with him today.”<br/>

“We didn’t get in a fight-” Harry started.<br/>

“Either way, still doesn’t explain it.”<br/>

Harry let out a sigh, “Well, I was going to ask him to the Yule Ball and-”<br/>

“You were going to ask him to the Yule Ball?!” Ron burst in, earning exasperated looks from both Harry and Hermione. “What? Don’t look at me like that! You like him back then?”<br/>

“Well, yeah,” Harry said, suddenly nervous again.<br/>

“Then why didn’t you kiss him back?” Ron said and Hermione rolled her eyes.<br/>

“I told you, I was nervous and didn’t know what to do! I was also kind of freaking out!” Harry threw his arms up and some people around the common room were starting to look over and give them weird looks so he dropped his voice level again, “If he kissed me again now, I wouldn’t shove him away!”<br/>

Both Ron and Hermione groaned, “You’re helpless.”<br/>

“As I was saying,” Harry continued, less nervous now that he knew his friends were just going to make fun of him for making a mess of things rather than liking Draco, “I was going to ask him, but I ended up just making him upset.”<br/>

“And how did you manage to do that?”<br/>

“I may have asked him if he was going with anyone, and when he said he wasn’t even planning on going I said he should. Then, when he asked why I said he should go because it’s our last year.”<br/>

“So in other words you asked him if he had a date to the Yule Ball and then told him he should go simply because it’s his last year, never asking him to go, and all the while holding his hand?” Hermione said, completely disappointed.<br/>

“How on earth did you know I was holding his hand?”<br/>

“You’re not slick Harry, you can’t just hold someone’s hand in public and not expect anyone to notice,” Hermione replied, rolling her eyes, “Ron’s right, you really are helpless.”<br/>

“I know,” he groaned, flopping forward, “I just don’t know what to do, he just keeps avoiding me.”<br/>

“Can’t blame him I would too,” Ron said.<br/>

“Not helping.”<br/>

“Well, if he’s ignoring you, you could write him a letter asking to meet up and saying you’re sorry. I don’t suggest asking him to the Yule Ball through a letter, though, so make sure to just ask him to meet up,” Hermione suggested.<br/>

“And if he tears it up?”<br/>

“I don’t think he’ll tear it up.”<br/>

“Yeah, at the least he’ll be curious and open it,” Ron said, “It’s in his nature, he’s kind of a busy body.” When Harry glared at him he put his hands up in mock surrender, “Hey, I’m just telling the truth.”</p>
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